Okay, has it SERIOUSLY been almost a year since my last blog?? Seriously?? My my my (channeling Johnny Gill), have I got some stuff to catch you up on! Where to start…where to start…??… Okay, I’ll start with me! (what better place to start, right?? HA!) Here goes:
So…HI..I’m working now! I work! I’m a working girl! (well…you know what I mean!) Don’t hate me for being so important…but I work! HA! I actually work “mostly” part time, for Met Life (you know? “Get Met…it pays!”). Anyway, I’m away from my kids about 20-30 hours a week, and I do miss my little crumb-snatchers, but I LOVE MY JOB!! I started back in late December as a Marketing Support Specialist (sounds fancy, doesn’t it?? Yeah, you can hate just a little…I’m fancy! Well…not really, but my title is! HA!), but now I’m doing Contracts, etc. (well, learning to do them!) PLUS the marketing stuff. Anyway, j’adore my job-o! (see what I did there? mixing French with Spanglish?? ..that’s becuz I’m all fancy..and I work now…) Long story short on why I’m working vs. just staying home raising my sweet loves…well, we be po’!! And you know a sista likes to eat and have electricity, so it was either go back to work, or come live with one of you!! For now, I choose “work”! …for now…
Okay, now, let’s talk Brent: My sweet honey-pie (yeah, I know…I’m all bipolar!! One day it’s all: “he’s grounded!!” ..the next day it’s all: “he’s so sweet!” Today, right this second…he’s my “sweet honey pie”) – anywho…my sweet honey pie is workin’ the Mr. Mom thang for awhile. (well, till we can get Noah into the only day care I’m willing to put her in; which, btw, is the same school were Elijah goes! Yay! More on that later…) Brent’s still doing ministry, but in order for me to work, he’s staying home with Noah a couple days a week, and he has BOTH KIDS on Mondays. Rock on, Big Daddy!! Next month, Noah and Lijah-pie will both be in school (well, day care for Noah) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he’ll only have to brave the storm (and if you knew my kids, you’d say “storm” was putting it mildly!! Seriously…) on Mondays. I’ll be off Wednesdays and Fridays to keep my babies, so Brent can actually do ministry related “stuff” all week long (after Monday, that is!). And Brent said “AMEN!!” Our ministry is taking a slight turn; starting next month, we’ll be working with the National Office (basically the HNIC’s) in direct relation to helping other church planters/missionaries on a National level, vs. just in Arkansas. So, not real sure what the day to day is gonna look like yet, but we’re both REAL excited about it! There will be some nationwide events that Brent will get to host and speak at (which he LOVES and is GREAT at), plus he’s gonna do some writing (which, as we all know, he ROCKS the pen and papaer!). Anyway, he’s been loving being Mr. Mom (at least, that’s what he tells me), but it’s time he got to go about his Father’s business. Rock on, Honey Pie…rock on! \m/ \m/
What’s next? Oh…Elijah! Of course! Okay, let me start off by saying we just finished a “jam session”. Oh yeah, the music still lives on in the Atkinson household! Elijah lined us all out: “Daddy, you play the flute; Mommie, here’s your guitar…and you need to put the strap around your head so it doesn’t fall off!” (really??) “I’ll play the drums!” Noah, instinctively played the keyboard then the OTHER flute. I don’t know about you, but NOTHIN’ beats a good “twinkle, twinkle, little star” jam session. Unless it’s an encore of “the itsy bitsy spider”! (oh snap! it was ON with the Spider encore!) I mean, c’mon!! Okay, so what else about Elijah can I tell you? Only that he’s the BEST big brother in existence! (did I spell that right?) Seriously!! He wakes up every day asking for Noah (or “Woody” – more on that in a bit) and then he kisses her all stinkin’ day long! And just loves on her and tries to protect her from anything and everything! One time during a bath, she slipped and fell in the tub (she went under; yeah, note to self: kids don’t like that! HA!), and ever since then, during their bath, he’s oober paranoid if I’m not holding onto her with at least one hand during the ENTIRE bath! (“mommie…please hold onto my sister tight so she doesn’t fall down!! MOMMIE…DON’T TAKE YOUR HAND OFF OF MY SISTER!!! Just please take her out of the tub so she won’t fall….PLEASE!”) Bath time is fun…no…really… What else about my Lijah-pie? OH…if you haven’t heard from me since the last blog, then you missed the entire Buzz Lightyear YEAR!! Oh-em-gee…SERIOUSLY…whoa..that was a um…”special” season of our lives. Serisously…if you missed it, YOU MISSED IT. We were eating, sleeping, breathing, LIVING “Toy Story” …1, 2, & 3!! All of us (probably even Noah) can quote all 3 Toy Stories verbatim. Mostly becuz my sweet Lijah-pie had us watching the 24/7! …more like 25/8!! And none of us were who we thought we were: I wasn’t “mommie”; I was “Jessie”. Noah was “Woody” (seriously, he didn’t start calling her Noah until about 3 weeks ago.). Daddy was “Zurg” (the sworn enemy of the galactic alliance). Elijah was, of course, “Buzz Lightyear”. And YES, that’s how he introduced himself to anyone and everyone. “I’m BUZZ LIGHTYEAR…of Star Command!!” Sakes alive!!! It seems the Buzz era has mercifully come to an end (Praise God!!), and now, it’s a combination “Pirate”/”Cars” era that is upon us. I have to say, so far, it’s about a million times better than the Toy Story era…but we’re only in Phase I, so that may change! HA! He’s totally the smartest kid in his class (rock on, mommie’s smart boy!) with the best vocabulary (no surprises there, right? My boy can TALK, yo!), and the Christian school that I was trying to get him into is even BETTER than I thought it was gonna be. He’s fully pottie trained now (yeah at 3 and 1/2 that’s soooo unimpressive, this I know…but it means NO MORE DIAPERS!! …well, at least for him, so that’s impressive to me! HA!!) And, he says the sweetest most precious things to me on the regular!! “Oh Mommie…I just love you!” and “Thank you for being my Mommie today!” (yeah, did you catch the “today” part?? Like “yesterday, not so much. but today…yeah, thanks!” — whatever! I’ll take it!) and “you make me so happy to be your baby!” and my personal favorite: “Mommie…I have to tell you something…I want you!!!!” (which means he wants to snuggle!! Does it GET any better than that?? I mean SERIOUSLY??!!) Yeah, he’s pretty awesome….
Okay, my Noah~Faith!! What can I say about my sweet pea?? 1st of all, she’s a PISTOL, yo! Ol’ girl already has an attitude!!! Don’t get me wrong, she’s the most snuggly, lovie-dovie, beautiful thing on the planet, but oh-em-gee, don’t cross her! HA! She adds just the right amount of “je ne sais quois” to our household! (again, me with the French…I know!) She’s “mostly” sleeping thru the night (mostly) which is awesome (mostly). And she’s just about walking. Seriously, I think she’ll be walking within a month! (maybe less!) She blows kisses and waves and says “hi”! Soooo cute! And she says “Eyiyah!” or “Ejijah!” whenever she sees or even thinks of Elijah. It’s soooo sweet! And YES, she still eats up a storm! It cracks me up becuz Lijah eats like a bird, and Noah eats like a wild animal who’s been starved for about a month! She gets her grub ON! She loves to blow kisses at her Daddy most of all! She LOVES her Daddy! (I think she likes him more than she likes me….rude! ..whatever…) Anyway, she’s trying to talk but not making any sense. The funniest thing is to watch her watching you talk; she moves her mouth with you while you’re talking. It’s soooo funny! And she learned how to point a few weeks ago, so she points at EVERY THING!! She snuggles soooo sweetly with me that I’m almost over the fact that she likes her Daddy better! (almost) Anyway, my Noah~Faith has got to be the most beautiful little girl on the planet. Seriously…
What else? Oh, looks like we’ll be in Cali the 2nd week of August so hopefully I’ll be able to see you ALL (or “y’all”, as they’re teaching me to say) really soon! We love you, our family and friends, and we miss you dearly! Can’t wait to see you, hug you, kiss you, and get you to watch our kids so we can have some “us” time! HA! (seriously….)
